


Street Lights

by gardengalaxy



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: BAMF Women, Biracial Character, Gen, I am proud of her, Pansexual Character, autistic protagonist, character with a hearing disability, she also really does not like megatron, she is all of those things, she starts a revolution, vehicons with twitter accounts, yep
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-01 15:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15776985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardengalaxy/pseuds/gardengalaxy
Summary: Noticing how the humans were able to provide aid to the Autobots, Megatron orders Breakdown to acquire one (preferably without being noticed) from Earth to further decepticon knowledge.It goes about as well as you'd expect.Pissed at being snatched from her comfy bed sleeping on the streets, Lee cracks her knuckles and begins planning the revolution.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW: mentioned sexual assault, violence against main character, and kidnapping.

Coughs wracked her body.

  
It was a chilly, rainy, day in Seattle. But then again, it always was during fall. But that combined with her cold had her walking duck-footed. She staggered behind a dumpster, rainy garbage slosh going over the top of her boot, and another shiver went up her spine at the squelch in her socks.

  
A rumble of thunder overhead drowned out the rumble in her stomach-an impressive feat in and of itself as the last thing she had eaten was two apples she had nabbed for yesterday's breakfast.  
Dark clouds rolled over head, disappearing in between some of the buildings. The alley she was in was tinged gray, with a concrete ground, various pipes and beige faded bricks. She sat on a cardboard box in a corner of the alley, where a roof had blocked most of the rain. And thought.

  
She couldn't go back to the homeless shelters. One of the volunteers had given her a funny look, and she knew if she went back child services would snatch her up and throw her into foster care. Again. She shivered as she remembered how they treated her there, and the threats she got from the caretakers. How the one male doctor had tried to convince her to take off her shirt for an “examination”. She was better off on her own.

  
Cold hands reached under the thin clear rain poncho and into her hoodie-pulling out a pocket knife. She flicked it open, and cleaned some of the dirt out from under her nails. Her legs started bouncing of their own accord, but she didn't stop them. It generated heat. Puffs of warm air rose from the pipe next to her and she sighed in relief, holding her still trembling fingers up to it.

  
She crossed her steel-toed boots, rubbing her numb thighs together. She had got these jeans at a goodwill store. It was pretty easy to steal from goodwill, to be honest. The employees expect you to steal China, not a pair of jeans and leggings worn under sweatpants.

  
The pipe stopped emitting heat. Unphased, she pulled a lighter out from her bra. She had casually walked into someones garage and had filled it up with lighter fluid, and then had casually walked back out. She still couldn't believe she had gotten away with that. She flicked her thumbnail over the switch and was gratified to see the flame spring to life. She brought it over her frozen nose and mouth, working feeling back into them. She stared into the flame for a long time, admiring the way the orange curved, and the blue at the heart of it.

  
It was the brightest thing for miles around.

The thunder rumbled again, fainter this time and she was glad the storm was moving out as her stomach rumbled louder than ever. She put the flame away, careful not to disrupt her poncho, and stood up.

Coughs forced her down again, sitting heavily and breaking the box. She leaned on a street light, the bulb flickering on mid-day thanks to the clouds blocking out the sun.

  
Her ears rang, hearing not the same as it used to be after the blows to her head. There was now a constant faint ringing that never went away. Her hearing was like a dulled knife.

She would feel better when she got food. Slip into a supermarket bathroom, shove some stuff under her poncho and go.

* * *

 

Thunder rumbled across the viewing deck. It rattled the gray floorboards, the dark clouds casting sharp shadows across the room. Lighting flashed again, sending a tall, brooding figure into focus.

His silhouette was absolutely menacing. Tall and imposing and stretching across the entire room shadow spikes reaching for him. The vehicon didn't even look up from her console. His face and body glowed eerily in the light from the screens but that wasn't a problem. Another rumble crossed the deck but it wasn't thunder this time. The silhouette growled, storm outside reflecting his inner rage. The vehicon looked up from his screen. She hoped she wouldn't be used as a punching bag.

The Lord of the Decepticons wasn't happy.

Not at all.

As he watched lighting streak across the Nemesis's hull, he growled. The Autobots had taken over and stripped another mine. The only reason he couldn't launch a counterattack was because the Autobot's had humans swarming the place, on high alert with their primitive weapons.

Humans. Something he could step on and not realize it if it wasn't for the red organic matter on his pede. The human pets the Autobots had were a hindrance, getting under foot in battle and having to be rescued. Constantly. But then yet again, the humans provided a base to them the Decepticons had not yet been able to locate, and were now preventing them from retaking the mines.  
What strange creatures.

The fact remained, while humans could be a disadvantage-flashes of the humans pets being held hostage and getting underfoot in battle ran across his processor-they had their uses. The Autobots would be defeated and Optimus Prime would be dead by now if not for the humans shielding them and providing them with a base.

Perhaps further inquiry was required...

He shifted, jagged spikes of his armor moving into a fluid shadow. Purple lights lined the room and Megatron turned towards the Vehicon.

"Get me Breakdown. Now!"

The Vehicon jumped into action.

* * *

 

She walked slowly out of the store. No need to rush and make herself look suspicious. The rain had turned into a light drizzle which actually worked in her favor. No one was willing to chase her in this horrible weather.

She walked on the sidewalk, counting the cracks and watching water trickle through them. She waited until she was around the corner and the security camera couldn't follow until she whipped out three bananas, five granola bars, a water bottle, a bag of chocolate covered raisins, dried apricots, and a jar of peanut butter. If she was careful this could last her a whole week.

She ducked into the alley-way she had hid her backpack in. She tore off the Banana peel and ate it with four huge bites, almost choking on it. She chugged some of the water from the bottle, capping it, then ate a handful of the raisins. With the grumbling stopped-for now, she decided to take inventory.

She had an off brand bookbag she had pilfered from goodwill. It was bigger than most backpacks-obviously meant for a highschool student. It had one big cavernous section where she put her extra clothes and a pair of flip-flops. The water bottle was in the side pouch and was completely hidden. She had a spare pocket knife, matches, A flip phone, ten dollars and fifty-seven cents, various band-aids, and hand-sanitizers in case she got hurt.

She smirked as she patted her chest, feeling the wad of cash she had put in a pocket sewn into her bra. She pilfered it off of some rich white dick from the suburbs who sneered at her. She wouldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary.  
But the real jewel of her collection was the cold medicine. She had loitered for a good fifteen minutes until she could snatch this. She carefully read the dosage, pouring the correct amount. Her face screwed up as she drank it down, but was relieved she would be feeling better soon.

She had snatched a shower at the gym, sweet-talking some of the men working out to get past them. She wasn't a bad looking girl, not at all. It's just the sunken in cheeks, eye-bags that nearly went down to her cheek bones, and skin dulled with lack of nutrition didn't do her any favors. The men still thought she was coming on to them. She laughed. Bitterly. They couldn't have been more wrong.

The thing about living on the streets was you knew your way around, and you knew how to get away with things normal people couldn't. Street smarts, she believed it was called. A perfect example was sweet talking those men to get to the locker rooms.  
And now that she had taken her medicine and had accomplished basic tasks to stay alive, her thoughts were creeping back.

_"Please, Wait-!"_

_"You are no child of mine! Out!"_

She shook violently. Springing up she thought it was a lovely time for a walk. Being mid-afternoon, rainy, and a Wednesday, the streets were clear as everyone was either at work, school, or home. No pitying, disgusted looks. She poked her head out of the alley looking back and forth. No one except for a stray dog and a parked Honda down the street.

She hoisted her backpack up and decided to walk downtown for a bit. If she listened closely she could hear music floating out of some the many music clubs. It was faint and she could barely pick up on it with her crappy hearing, but she smiled and hummed along under her breath anyway. The space needle was visible now that she wasn't in a store or narrow alleyway.

It was peaceful.

It was lonely. Sometimes, she missed them.

* * *

 

"Open a ground bridge to the nearest, biggest human city!" Breakdown asked at the nearest Vehicon. He tried not to snarl, knowing it wasn’t the drones fault, but anger leaked into his voice anyway.

The Vehicon quickly complied, obviously sensing the ire of one of the ships commanders. He located the nearest city on the screen, quickly opening a ground bridge into what the humans called an 'alleyway'.

"Thank you." He ground out. Breakdown transformed, and roared into the swirling bridge.

He emerged in a dank alley way, barely big enough to fit his alt mode. His narrow view of the street revealed it to be barren for the most part. Which was good. His tires squealed as he peeled out of the alley and onto the street, going well above the speed limit with thoughts of what Lord Megatron had said on the front of his processor.

"Find a human. One who won't attract much attention when taken."

"L-lord Megatron-"

"Are you questioning me?"

"No sir!"

And now he was stuck, under direct orders to somehow acquire a human without the other flesh bags noticing. And he couldn't return until then. He wasn't sure why Lord Megatron suddenly wanted a human, considering how much he detested them, but Breakdown figured he had his reasons. He wondered if Knockout knew what was going on. He stopped at a red light. While he could have run through it, it was best at this point not to attract attention. Drizzle cooled off his armor. It turned green, and he slowly started up, searching for any humans.

Why couldn't he find any!? They were crawling all over this rock! Did they suddenly all vanish? It was midday, so they couldn't be recharging…

He vented as he turned a street corner and into the downtown area. Doing a quick search, the thing the humans called a 'Space Needle' was visible.

And then he spotted a human. It was carrying something on its back and was wearing a shimmery layer of plastic that looked to be protection against the water. No one else was in sight. He turned off his headlights and remained idle. Best not to alert the human they were being followed.

* * *

 

Her hairs stood on end despite the dampness. She was being followed.

After so long on the streets she had gained sort of a sixth-sense. When someone wanted to approach her selling drugs, or when a group of suspicious men got an idea in their heads that a lone girl was an easy target (which she was), her hair stood on end and she bounced the hell out of there. She would immediately move to a populated area or get into a public store. But the thing was she didn't know the downtown area as well as the outer fringes of the city. Tourist didn't like homeless trash cluttering up their view.

She ducked into a desolate McDonald's and peered outside. Nothing except a parked car with no one inside, but her hair tingled as she went over it. It was unlike any vehicle she had ever seen, built more for rough terrain that city streets.

"Excuse me." A voice said, not sounding like it cared if it was excused. "You can't stay here unless you buy something."

She turned to look at a white boy. With a watch that probably consisted some people’s rent, he had that judgemental sneer in his eyes as he took in her mocha skin and dirty clothes.

No manners. She may have been a street rat now but at least she wasn’t raised in a fucking barn.  
She ordered a McChicken. She watched the car out of the corner of her eye the entire time she ate her sandwich. Slowly, turning each bite over in her mouth so she could stay as long as possible and get the most out of it. And then it did something she had never seen a car do before.

It moved on it's own. It was only a little bit, but it definitely shifted. A piece of lettuce fell from her mouth.  
Maybe it sensed her gaze because it froze.

She closed her jaw and noticed the employee giving her the stink eye. Wait, was the employee the one who was watching her beforehand through the window? It was entirely possible, as the windows stretched down the entire store and she could see to the end of the streets where her neck had first tingled.

While she had tried to eat slowly, she couldn't help herself and had finished the sandwich within the hour. She needed to move soon. If they decided to call the police she would be screwed. In fact, it was stupid of her to even come to the city at all. Maybe they had caught her on camera at the store and now here she was downtown with that many more cameras.

The box in the alley was still probably dry. It was secluded and a block away from the firehouse, so no one shady would be there. She packed up her stuff and walked out. Maybe she was hallucinating when she saw the car move by itself. The asphalt was wet after all.

* * *

 

Frag. The human saw him move. He had adjusted himself on his tires, as the uphill parking position was uncomfortable. He didn't think the bleary eyed human would notice, much less care.

Looks like this was the one then.

He took a second to admire her scrappiness.

They disappeared for a second, before re-emerging from the door. They adjusted their outer layer and walked away from the cluster of buildings. Breakdown waited until they were down the street, to pull out and tint his windows.

They moved so slowly and cautiously Breakdown was tempted to honk his horn just to watch them jump, breath a little life into them. They were heading out of the downtown area and to more of the outer reaches of the city. They were also alone this entire time, with no companions. They must be heading home now to recharge or whatever humans called it. The buildings became shorter, and the streets smaller.

It hurried their pace, and ducked into one of the many side streets-alleyways?

This was even better. No other squishies to go back too. He really hit energon here.

He pulled up, and had to ruthlessly squash down a pang of pity in his spark as he watch the human fumble and fall on a squashed brown thing. She looked like a drowned turbo-rat.

It was narrow and he could just barely fit his alt mode in, moving almost silently.

"What the hell!"

* * *

 

She shouted. How the hell did this giant ass truck squeeze in here!?

Well she sure as hell wasn't gonna stick around to find out! The alley didn't have a back exit. She turned to face the silent giant car and broke into a run.

"Hey!" It shouted. It took her a second to realize it spoke, words lost to the ringing.

She propelled herself onto the hood and just reached the top when she was falling. She bit her tongue when her head jerked and landed on something...soft.

She could still see the cloudy sky but when she looked around she was inside the car. By herself. On the seats. She lunged forward, only to have the sunroof close before her very eyes.

"You're coming with me. " Panels on a car like she had never seen before blinked with each word. Strange gears and instruments lined the dashboard.

"This is Breakdown requesting a ground bridge." A swirling mass of green and blue appeared in front of them. But there was no one to hear, or even care when she screamed.

The damp brown box slumped even further.

All alone again.

* * *

 

While the screaming was annoying, Breakdown knew he had found the perfect specimen.

They were even weaker than the rest of their species, her blows not even registering. They were panting and exhausted and making a weird hacking noise as he drove to the throne room, and barely moving. His scanners showed an irregular beating. They had no one to care or miss them. He found out on the internet; They were what the humans called 'homeless', due to the human living in an alley.

Lord Megatron would be pleased.


	2. Sparks of Something New

Her ears rang and throbbed, the Tinnitus blocking out all other noises.

As she stared, wide-eyed at the proceedings, her mind couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening to her.

The car that had kidnapped her had somehow shifted into a giant robot thing, with an orange face and blue body, other colors popping up here and there.

She was laying on her side, backpack digging into her shoulders and wet pants chafing uncomfortably as she stared up at another robot that made the one holding her look downright cuddly. Her foot began to tapped rapidly against her calf in anxiety. She could feel the imminent meltdown approaching.

She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she knew that this one was in charge here. He was almost completely gray, with purple highlights here and there. Red eyes burned from a scared and horrid face. He-or at least she thought it was an he-looked down at her cowering in Orangey’s hand like she was dog shit.

She knew that when he looked at her, he saw something not worth anything. Someone less than. Something inside her snarled at what she saw in his eyes. It was the same look she got when she held her ex-girlfriend's hand walking down the street. It was the same look she got when she asked people to slow down so she could read their lips. It was the same look she got from that white boy in the Mcdonalds just earlier today.

Lee was terrified, Lee knew this wasn’t a dream, or else the seeping cut on her hand would have woken her up. But Lee knew that look, and you know what?

She wasn’t. Here. For it.

She didn’t know why she was here, truthfully, but with her meltdown averted, abit briefly, due to her rage, she raised her head and sneered at the gray giant, lips pulled up and eyes shooting her disdain right back at him.

The rumbling from the orange one that signified speaking stopped, and she felt his eyes on her like a thousand tiny pinpricks, but she refused to look away from the red pupils.

That got his attention.

The once dismissive glance now focused on her with a laser like precision. Lee refused to waver, instead shifting so she stood on her feet, not once breaking eye contact. She stared him down. A heavy blanket of calm washed over her, and her hearing cleared up enough that she heard his raspy sardonic laughter.

“Breakdown. You have done well.” he said.

So the one who was holding her was named Breakdown? Good to know.

The gray one looked at her with amusement. Lee could barely pick up his raspy voice, but she managed.

“You have brought back an interesting pet. Learn what you can from it, and see if there is anything about humanity we can use to our advantage against the Autobots.”

“Yes, Lord Megatron.” He dismissed them. Lee lost her balance and fell to her side, hissing in pain as she landed on her weeping hand as the robot-Breakdown-turned and began walking into the gloomy halls of what she could only assume was the mother ship. Her mind scrambled to make sense of it all, neurons firing away as she pieced together clues from the short conversation she had just heard.

She did not have time to panic. She didn’t have the time to panic when she was being kicked out ass first to the streets, or when a group of men got ideas and chased her through the alleyways. With the ease of practice, she cleared her head and began to think.

Firstly, there was the word pet. Was that she was on this mothership? A pet? What, like a cat or something? It was clear, that even with her little stunt back there she was still considered inferior. These were beings who did not care about her, and would kill her without a second thought.

Then there was the business of the second sentence. “Learn what you can from it, and see if there is anything about humanity we can use to our advantage.” There was a lot to unpack there. All at once, it implied that they were not from this earth, that they were a species separate from humanity. It implied that whoever they were, they weren’t here for very long, and wanted to find out more information about the dominant life forms on the planet.

She wondered if they knew of the internet. Still, she wasn’t gonna tell them, as it seemed her only use to them was informing them about humanity, then having the internet replace her would be the quickest way to get herself killed.

The last thing in that sentence, the Autobots. By the tonal inflection alone, and the hatred simmering underneath, she could tell they were enemies. But what sort of enemies? More metal giants like them? Why were they fighting?

Her brow relaxed as she steadied her breathing. She fisted her wounded hand into her shirt as her heart claimed with each deduction she made.

Her mind wandered to what Breakdown had called the taller giant. Lord Megatron. Not only was that name intimidating as shit, but the fact that he put Lord in from of it made her wary. It reminded her of medieval times, where peasants were forced to call their owners Lord too.

Whatever this group was, he was their leader, and he ran more along the lines of a dictator than President.

Great.

Was there some way that maybe she could contact these Autobots? Hm, she was getting ahead of herself. The ringing had receded for the most part, now that she wasn’t in immediate peril. It cleared up just enough for her to hear someone else speak.

“Commander Breakdown!” Whoever they were, they were clearly startled, and a bit nervous.

Lee opened her eyes just in time to see the giant console switch from what looked like...youtube.

The being was purple and black, all sharp edges with no face except a visor. Lee gasped. She had seen one of these before in the main room, looking exactly like this one. As she turned to look over a metallic thumb, she saw a few more congregated in the halls a block down.

All identical.

Down to the shade of paint. She remembered seeing one of those same arms on the floor of the Throne room thing, scorch marks next to it. The width of the blast was roughly the same of the mounted cannon thing on Megatron’s arm. Execution. Body left as a reminder, as the blue alien blood had started to dry.

Lee had a feeling that there was some creepy allegory she was missing here but didn’t have time to think about it, because just then, Breakdown spoke.

“Go about your business, soldier.” They nodded, visor trained on her, and Lee couldn't help herself. She waved.

She waved as if to say, ‘hello fellow being considered inferior!’ and she felt a weird sort of kinship with this being who desperately snatched moments of happiness from videos on youtube in a place where they could otherwise get their heads blown off.

They continued walking and Lee dared to look up at her kidnappers face. H

e was staring down at her.

She swallowed heavily, and tightened her fist into her shirt, feeling the slick blood on her skin.

“So, would you care to explain why I am here and what my purpose is? It would make it much easier for the both of us.” She remarks pleasantly. He snorts.

“Smart, for a human.” She carefully does not let her anger show.

“You’re here as our pet. And our guide.”

“And where is here, exactly?” She asks, not bothering to mask her intentions to get information. Besides, if Breakdown thought she was a forward person, he wouldn't suspect her subtle manipulations.

He gave her another look.

“The Nemesis, the Decepticon war ship currently hovering above the earth.”

“What are you called, besides Decepticons? Where do you come from? And what are those purple and black beings?” He didn’t say anything, and for a second Lee was afraid she had gone too far, but then he let out a chuckle that reverberated to her very bones.

“We are called cybertronians, from the planet Cybertron. We left to find resources on other planets, and those ‘purple and black beings’ are drones.”

She hummed. So they were called drones, huh? That implied that they were mindless beings with no personality. That was bullcrap. What kind of mindless drone watches jennamarbles on youtube and squeaks when their commanding officer approaches? Not a drone, that's who. Lee smirked internally. That had potential.

They continued walking before Breakdown paused at a huge keypad. He typed in some numbers that Lee made sure to watch through his cupped fingers, and entered the room. There was a box table thing in the back of the huge private storage room, and Lee knew it was where she was staying.

He set her down.

“You know that I’m going to need supplies, right.” Breakdown grunted.

“Try to last one earth rotation. I’ll send one of the vehicon’s to assist you.” He turned and left, the closing door echoing in his wake. Lee shifted, hissing as she dragged her hand from her now soiled shirt.

She shrugged off her backpack, and used her teeth to open the front pouch as her knee pinned it to the metal table. She opened the first air kit and then her water bottle. She poured the water over the wound, hissing as she rinsed it clean of pebbles and dirt. She struggled to her the rest of her shirt off and immediately regretted it when the icy air of the ship was made apparent. She used the clean parts of the shirt to dab the remains of the blood, before getting the hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol. With a deep breath, she poured them directly into the wound.

She exhaled through clenched teeth, but otherwise showed no outward reaction to what felt like a thousand hornets dancing on her palm.

She rinsed it again, and then cut up the clean bits of her shirt to use as bandages. She takes of her gloves for one second… She inspects the wound, and is relieved to find that it won’t need stitches. She wraps it, and then puts on her finger-less, beaten into leather gloves. It puts pressure on the would, but Lee takes that as a good thing, as it will stop any further bleeding and make sure no dirt will get in.

Teeth chattering, she takes off her damp pants, now only in her under garments-a cami with a built in bra and boxer shorts. She looks around the storage room, sharp eyes taking in every single detail. She notices broken down equipment, what looks like a giant drill missing a tread, and a pile of broken vehicon bits. What really gets her attention though, is the dead wooden bits strewn all over the drill’s treads. Trees must have broken it down.

Offering up a prayer in thanks, she hurries over, and stacks so much wood and dead leaves in her arms she can’t see over the top. She deposits it in the dip in the back of the table where it looked like a giant fist had slammed down and made a dent. She used her plastic rain poncho as a makeshift bag to haul a huge amount of leaves over to the fire pit. She dumps them in.

Shaking harder now, she is barely able to get her lighter out of the backpack and start the fire.

The leaves crinkle up fast, and soon, a steady fire is going. Lee sighs in relief, holding her frozen fingers out towards the crackling flames. A drones wrist is resting on the table not far from her. It takes all she has, but she is eventually able to push it over enough where it’s around the fire pit and shelters her from the direct view of the door. She extends one of its fingers to hang her pants over to dry.

The hand is resting so that the pads of the fingers are resting on the table and it forms a mini cave. Lee hangs her backpack on the thumb, and pulls out her thin sweater and sweatpants, putting them on. She removes her boots, and takes her spare pair of socks and puts them on her cold numb feet. Taking her only blanket, she rests it on the metal table, under the giant palm and in front of the fire. She moves the thumb so it isn’t blocking her heat, lays down on the blanket, folds her arms under her head and falls asleep.


End file.
